Scott Shafer admitted he was very nervous.

Last night, the Syracuse head coach met with two of his own high school coaches and expressed worry about Central Michigan’s quarterback and wide receiving corps.

And when Cooper Rush scrambled to his right with less than 10 seconds left and CMU down a touchdown, the floated ball that found the hands of Ben McCord — and stayed there as Julian Whigham fell on top of him in the end zone — brought Shafer’s nerves to fruition.

“We did bend,” Shafer said, “… bent a little bit too much.”

Despite cracking at the end of regulation, Syracuse didn’t break. Two fourth-quarter Central Michigan turnovers were erased and the Orange defense that held up a struggling offense for almost the entire second half had just 25 yards to work with in overtime.

Syracuse’s last defensive possession resulted in three points for the Chippewas. But with CMU running back Devon Spalding firmly in the grasp of defensive end Ron Thompson on third down, SU’s (3-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) defense had done just enough to force a field goal and open the door for an unlikely offensive tandem to pull out a 30-27 win over the Chippewas (1-2) in the Carrier Dome on Saturday.

“They were exploiting a lot of things on our defense, a lot of things that we need to work on,” linebacker Zaire Franklin said. “Really, it just comes down to having to make plays when we were called upon.”

Syracuse didn’t score the entire second half as walk-on sophomore quarterback Zack Mahoney and sophomore Austin Wilson struggled to spark an Eric Dungey-less offense.

The Orange had possession for only 8:53 in the second half, giving the defense more than 21 minutes to hold CMU to less than two touchdowns after Dungey helped construct a 14-point halftime lead.

After Parris Bennett recovered a fumble in the fourth, Wilson threw an interception on the very next play. When Franklin intercepted a Rush pass, SU went three-and-out to force Riley Dixon into his sixth punt of the day.

“It hurts,” offensive tackle Omari Palmer said. “As an offensive player our job is to ride the ball out, eat clock, eat clock. Get (the defense) rest, so they can stay fresh … they always do above and beyond … they really, really kept us in the game.”

The Dome fell to a hush as McCord held onto the ball while his back hit the turf, and a 19-yard run by Spalding on the first play of overtime elicited the same reaction.

Two plays later, with CMU facing a third-and-one on the 1-yard line, the band began blasting music at the opposite end of the field. Fans in the student section unleashed their jingling keys. And the third-down horn blared from the speakers.

The snap to Rush and handoff to Spalding was met with quiet, but Thompson’s tackle for loss sparked a frenzy.

It was a spark the offense couldn’t deliver until overtime, but one made possible by a defense stringent enough keep Syracuse afloat.

“No matter what we do they can’t get across the goal line,” Franklin said. “Thankfully we made plays that stopped that.”

Published on September 19, 2015 at 7:00 pm

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